Saturday, April 28, 2007

Nine Tissue Movie

Always reluctant to watch the movie version of one of my favourite novels...I took a leap yesterday and watched Wuthering Heights. I started crying from the first scenes, it was ridiculous but very cathartic. Not just little sad tears but that really awful ugly cry. The whole movie. Nine tissues.The novel was written in 1847 and this movie version was directed by William Wyler in 1939 and is beautiful though it veers from the plots in the original...it doesn't matter, this movie captures the cruelty of Cathy and Heathcliff and their eventual peace as ghosts. So often it is forgotten that this is really one of the greatest ghost stories ever written, along with A Christmas Carol, Woman In White, The Shining and The Turn of The Screw How could the shy conservative woman Emily Bronte understand that death, sex and evil can be terribly perverted and connected?. William Wyler is an awesome director and has directed many movies that I love and also explore sex, evil, women and death including Carrie, The Collector, The Little Foxes, Jezebel and the film noir The Letter.Funny, I never thought Lawrence Olivier was good looking before, but he is wonderful and lovely as Heathcliff. And Merle Oberon what a mysterious beauty and what an actor!I really laugh at myself that I didn't want to see this movie in case it failed the novel. Sometimes it is best to approach a movie version of a novel as a response to a book rather than a literal rendition. This movie made me want to seize the day and be so happy for all the fun things in my life.

7 comments:

I will have to see this.....! The pictures are alluring, and your review too.......so I shall see if I can find it.......I will. Right now I'm trying to get little boy to bed so I can watch "Daughter from Danang: American Experience."

Reformer, well, I am a bit of a suck when it comes to sad stories...I wouldn't use me as a gauge for how much the average person might cry at a tearjerker. BUT...as for the Titanic, I saw it the week it came out, in Vancouver it was a rainy December, whats new about that in Vancouver...and a tissue rating. Please, I must have used my sweater, hoodie , the serviettes from my coffee, and basically every sleeve I could get my hands on for the Titanic. In fact, I didn't stop crying at the theatre. We walked home from the movie stopping at a gay bar to get more tissue...then walked across the Granville Street bridge...started to talk about the movie and started crying all over again. In fact, we have a gag order on never talking about the photos at the end of the movie Titanic. A funny thing about the Titanic...it's not just the love story that is sad...it's actually a part about her life and the very end with her photos representing all her life story that is the real tearjerker-in a girl power-kind of way....but I'm approaching gag order territory and don't want to weep on my keyboard.

Gardenia, I'm surprised you hadn't seen this movie, I figured I was really lame and lacking having not seen it all these opportunities. As I said, although it veers in many ways away from the novel, it is really good.

ok so you went way past gag order, and you left out the fact that the girl sitting next to you started crying in the opening credits cause she is a nerd and was so moved to see the real titanic, cause when she was 10 the guys who made the "geeks" came to her school and said maybe one day we could even use these to see the titanic, the ONLY way the love story is important in the film is how it shows time means nothing if you are open, and interested. i also love that it proves and makes no apologies for changing your path for another human. he inspired her to do and live! oh crap! ok i need a tissue! so to sum up, we cried for full 3hr and 15min! i know for sure i used my shirt.